The 4th International Workshop on Human-Friendly Robotics (HFR 2011) has been held on November 8th-9th, 2011, at the University of Twente, The Netherlands.

Motivation and Objectives

The growing need to automate daily tasks, combined with new robot technologies, is driving the development of human-friendly robots, i.e., safe and dependable machines, operating in the close vicinity to humans or directly interacting with them in a wide range of domains. The technological shift from classical industrial robots, which are safely kept away from humans in cages, to robots, which are used in close collaboration with humans, is facing major challenges that need to be overcome.

The objective of the workshop is to bring together researchers so to share knowledge on design, control, safety and ethical issues, concerning the introduction of robots into everyday life.